restoring a traditional blade -- need advice

C

clockworkgator

Joined
May 18, 2019
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40
Gents,

As my first go-round with restoring a blade, I'm practicing on an old, pretty rusty Camillus. I cleaned the inside out with penetrating oil and then hot water/soap and a brass brush. Then I soaked the blade in evapo rust. That cleared all the surface rust. I've been sanding and sanding to remove what I think is oxidation (black, slightly raised) but man oh man it doesn't want to clear. I'm trying to avoid power tools. So... thoughts/tips? (And yes, I know I could just oil it and put it in my pocket, but I'm trying to develop a baseline for rehabbing blades.)

Thanks!
M
 
On some knives, you will not be able to remove all the corrosion without removing too much material. Not all knives are suitable candidates to remove all signs of corrosion. I personally do not like seeing a knife that was "over-restored". You can really see it with the rounded edges and in the nail nick as it gets smaller and has less depth when too much material is removed.
 
If you still have pitting, the red-rust kind, you can often use a bamboo skewer to remove the red rust. Either dry, or with oil.
 
The black oxidation won’t leave without lots of metal being removed, it won’t come off even with a powered wire brush like a dremel wheel. For most knives I remove the active rust and leave the black because I don’t want to lose too much steel. You can see some on this old Challenge Cutlery knife that I recovered in black palm:

I definitely agree with Snipe1, I would rather see signs of age than an over-polished knife! Do you have pictures to share?
 
I just did this with my grandfather's old stockman. Deal with the active rust, and leave the rest. As others have said, I’d rather see scars than an over ground/sanded blade. Consider the remaining marks hard-earned character.
 
I don’t use power tools - just run through the grits from 150 or so up through 3000 then on to a light buffing & most cases all but the deepest rust can be eliminated without rounding over Swedge grinds or thinning nail nicks - key is patience and working slowly and understanding going into the project that it will entail much elbow grease. You have to really want to restore an old blade to invest this kind of time and effort.

Of course as others have said, there are always knives with rust too deep that can’t be removed without ruining the blade - for those, just do the best u can and don’t sweat not making them look new again ...
 
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